Movie review: Junebug (2005)

Junebug (2005) was nominated for one Academy Award®, which is how I came to hear about it, but it was not talked about very much, and it stars nobody whose name I recognize. Now it is one of my favorite movies. It's the story of a recently married Chicago couple that travels to North Carolina to meet with an outsider artist, and also introduce the wife to the husband's North Carolina family. Madeleine is a cosmopolitan art dealer. George's parents and brother and sister-in-law are plain, churchgoing, small-town folk. The movie puts all of these characters together under the parents' roof for several days to study the subtle friction and grace as they try to get along with each other. Madeleine enters the North Carolina culture by visiting the artist, an older, Bible-quoting eccentric obviously modeled on the Reverend Howard Finster. His tiny house/studio is a creative wreck, and both he and his paintings are innocently oblivious to their own startling honesty. Frank Hoyt Taylor is outstanding in this small role. Then it's on to George's family's house for a whole series of interactions and dramas that I will not detail here. The movie's Oscar® nomination went to Amy Adams, for her portrayal of Ashley, George's sweet and bubbly new sister-in-law. She's as barefoot and pregnant as can be, and absolutely wide-eyed in her admiration for the sophisticated Madeleine. It's an exhilaratingly pure performance. As Madeleine, Embeth Davidtz is very good. You can feel her internally correcting course as she tries to adapt to unfamiliar ways, and you can see the revelation in her eyes as she learns details of her husband's background. Alessandro Nivola, who plays George, spends a lot of time quietly walking around in the yard, but he does a great job during the movie's most crucial moment, and his reticence is understandable considering his parents (Celia Weston and Scott Wilson, both wonderfully cast). Despite being married with a baby on the way, George's brother Johnny still lives with these parents, and the resentment inside him is not making the situation easier for anyone. Played by Ben McKenzie, who apparently is famous for his role on The O.C., Johnny is a character I know personally. His struggle with a VHS tape is a touchingly real moment in a movie with many of those. This is the kind of film where there are words and gestures so quietly and deftly delivered that you almost hold your breath hoping it won't be ruined. It never is. In his very first feature, shot on a shoestring, director Phil Morrison has made the right and real choice at pretty much every turn, despite countless opportunities to resort to clichés. Junebug is funny without mocking, and dramatic without turning maudlin. I loved it. I rate it a 5 out of 5 at Netflix. Roger Ebert gave it a fine review, but I was happy to have seen the movie first before reading it.